Wordoku

It's not often you get a game title as illustrative as 'Wordoku'; a word that's both made up and explains the entire mechanic of the game precisely. So the revelation that this latest word puzzler from Capcom is sudoku with letters instead of numbers shouldn't stop your heart from working.

Now, the immediate thought occurs that sudoku works perfectly well as it is, without need for its sacred gameplay mechanics to be altered. This train of thought soon pulls into the vindication station, as it transpires that Wordoku plays exactly the same as its respected sibling. But this is no bad thing.

Whether it's necessary to go through the rules of sudoku here, I'm not quite sure, but let's take a bash. A 9x9 grid is further split up into nine, 3x3 'mini-squares'. The numbers 1 to 9 must be placed once on the grid inside of each 'mini-square', but cannot be repeated on either a row or column stretching across the entire board. A few numbers will be placed on the board to begin with, and figuring out where the rest go is the crux of play.

There's one essential difference embedded in Wordoku, and that's the ability to spell out a word. I know it sounds obvious, but what this does is lace the game board with a clues that help you solve the puzzles.

Each board in Wordoku spells out a nine-letter word diagonally from corner to corner. Naturally, a standard sudoku game would only display a list of numbers in that line, so figuring out what this word is provides a link to deciphering three definite placements within three of the mini-squares. A vital helping-hand on the more difficult boards.

Normally you'd have to calculate these squares in the ordinary fashion, but if you can suss out the word you're given an extra leg up. The remainder of the squares are filled by a selection of nine random letters, which are trickier to deduce than easily sequenced numbers, it has to be said. So while the diagonal word helps in one respect, the confusion of letters hinders in another.

Fortunately, the game allows you to allocate a 'possible' letter to a square, without actually committing to its placement. Similarly, when selecting a letter for placement, certain ones can be highlighted as 'impossible'; making it easier to reduce the dyslexic jumble and figure out which letters are still in play on a particular row or column.

The board itself is clear, and the controls concise. This game is easily the equivalent of any touchscreen PDA version or dedicated electronic sudoku game, and features enough of a difficulty level to successfully introduce complete novices or challenge any aspiring Rain Men.

If you're a fan of crosswords, number puzzles or word searches then there'll be few pocket games out there that are going to float your letter-crunching boat any higher than this.